A DAMPING AT MAUKE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 169, 13 April 1935, Page 13

A DAMPING AT MAUKE

Maoris Give Islanders An Impromptu Concert (By R. K. Palmer.) VI. The men o£ Mauke are boatmen: they have to be. for round their island, as round all the others, is the inevitable coral reef that keeps the ships that bring their food and take their fruit away well off shore. But their reputation as sailors is not high, and for working cargo they use whaleboats. To the passenger making his first trip the boats seemed far more secure than the outriggers of Mangaia. This was an illusion. The two rowers made a good pace from ship to reef, but there, either because they are not such go*l boatmen as the Mangaians, or because their graft are less hgndy than the canoes, kc stuck halfway over. The next sea damped every passenger —annoying, but cooling—then carried the boat into the lagoon, where the carriers waited. Carrying passengers ashore must be the most profitable occupation open to the husky young Mauke lad in quest of a career, for a shilling a trip, in a foot or two of water for 50 yards, is the recognised rate. Somehow or other the impression bad got about that Mauke was not much of an island, and we thought the hour and a half allotted to it would be quite long enough for us. But whoever omitted to praise Mauke libelled it. Once we had clambered up the rough steps that the high seas of the hugyicane had carved from a once smooth slipway? Captain Vil lenoweth, the resident agent, put us in a truck with a native driver, so that Judge Ayson and Mr. Smith could see for themselves the damage the big storm had done. For several miles we drove between high orange .trees, pandanus, coconuts, and guava weeds, to a village where a double cburcli was too interesting a sight for the newcomers to miss. Outwardly it is in much'the usual bare mission style, but it has two rather flimsy and ornate porches, instead of the conventional one. At the time the church was built there were on the island two factions whose rivalry was so strong that though they were persuaded to co-operate in building a church, nothing would make them agree on a design. The two porches, by one of which eayh group entered, give the only outside sign if the quarrel, but inside the church looks as if two halves of quite dissimilar buildings had been joined together. One has a high ceiling close under the sharp-pitched roof. The other has a flat ceiling, neatly painted in an angular pattern. The solid pillars are of roughly the samp shape, but their decorations are entirely different. The pulpit is half on one side half on the other. On one thing the quarrelsome builders' agreed; every few inches round the pulpit a Chilean dollar, the early currency of the Cook group, is neatly sunk in the wood. t An Island Plain. The church left behind, our drivet took us through more rows of trees to a surprise that brought a cry of amazement from the three passengers who were new to the island. The elderly truck romped round a corner blind ' with trees, on to a plain. A bare stretch of flat land is not usually rajed as a scenic attraction in New Zealinid, but it is so startling a contrast to the normal Sdenery of the islands that the sight of it comes, surprisingly, as a relief, It extends for hundreds of acres, parts of it so flat that a large aeroplane cobld easily be landed on it. Pleasant though it is for a New Zealander almost fuddled with fierce tropical scenery, or might be to. a wandering aviator, it has nothing' to recommend it to the Mauke farmer. 'lt is bare only because it is barren, and so far it has not been possible to supply the soil tvith whatever element of fertility is missing. The road ahead -was so rough after .'the hurricane that we had to double back on our tracks, passing again through the village by the landing, out to the other ■side of the island. Round a corner came a ragged procession of men and women, young and old. in the tattered Mothes . that are worn in all the poorer islands. .With them was the usual crowd of naked and neiirly-naked small boys, anything from two to three feet high. They were on their way, we found, to say good-bye to the young'native medical practitioner who was coming back to Rarotonga on the ship. Waylaid With Hospitality. The villages were almost J deserted. Those who had not been at the landing to meet the ship were on their way there, on foot, on horses, or cycling, waving, laughing, and calling “Kia Orana’ to the strangers. But two families had stayed at home. As we came back an ariki waved from his veranda for us to stop, asked us in very primitive English to come inside, and pointed to a table at which there were nute, ready for drinking, for all of us. He and his wife chuckled at our appreciation—which they could hardly have understood —then gave Mr. Smith mats and a carved wooden pillow. A quarter of a mile further down the road a woman stopped us and gave each a basket. A visit by any other Europeans than the judge, the doctor, or the crews of the rare island schooners are occasions to be remembered here for years, and the visitors must have something so that they will remember Mauke as it' remembers them. ... As we reached the one building that is courthouse, hall, and post office, we wondered why the crowd bad disappeared till, from inside, we heard singing. On a low platform were'two of the young Maori members of the Matai’s drew, beautiful singers both, showing Mauke what Maori music was. They had been garlanded, and at the end of every song • there was cheering and applause that the world's greatest singer could not bring from a European audience. While the Maoris sang there was not a move from the audience.

A White Pioneer. It was on this island that we talked to Peter Cowan, who was in the group before- the British protectorate was dec.ared, and who talked of the days when “things were free and easy and when he and the other pioneers had spent much ol their time working against the growing French influence. He had been ’ cockatooing” near Auckland he told us, having great fun shooting wild pigs and deer, when someone told him that the Cook Islands were better than the colony. And once the islands were reached, he said, • thev were bard to leave. He looked at us proudly as he said. “Fifty-three years here and not a kanaka yet. I hope I will *»ee yon again if you are back this way.” The boy who drove our truck, and the young native medical practitioner, were both grandchildren of his. We bad a few words with a bearded French priest, whom we pitied for the heat-absorbing black of his long cassock, before we braved the reef again. “I do not speak English,” he eaid. “I know the words, but I cannot use them- He had been there for years with his superiors, and would stay there, presumably, till he died. ■ . .V . The boatmen of Mauke were worse that dav at going out over the reef than at coming in. Perhaps 10 of them were hauling the boat over the coral, all o£ them and all the onlookers giving orders like captains, and when a breaker came near at least eight of them would jump clear. The boat would tip, and each time it tipped, the passengers got wet. Then we thought we were going to be completely deserted. There was a shout and in the cut through the coral we saw a Mauke four-year-old swimming desperately for the shore, but being swiftly sucked out to sea. One boat-holder stood fast, the rest dashed to the rescue. Three minutes and the youngster was safe but sore, a .Arm hand having been lajd on him to remind him that only grown swimmers might venture in the cut. Unlikely as it seemed while we waited for the breaker, we got through the surf, and, while the boatloads of Mauke peop*c returned to their island, we changed to dry clothes, and wished that their seamanship had been as admirable as their cheerfulness and generosity.